A diplomatic incident occurred on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of an international conference in Tokyo on African development, which ended this Sunday, August 25. Three Moroccan, Algerian, and Sahrawi diplomats fought this Saturday. A filmed altercation is making the rounds on social networks.
In the video, a man in a suit is seen taking out of his briefcase a sign that says “Sahrawi Republic” and placing it on a table in front of him in the preparatory work room for TICAD, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.
Suddenly, a young Moroccan participant throws himself on the table to tear off the placard, but he is intercepted by an Algerian diplomat who pins him, back to the ground. A sequence that has gone viral on social networks.
The whole debate is whether the representative of the Sahrawi Republic, recognized by the African Union but not by Japan or the United Nations, was officially invited to this meeting.
During his speech, the Japanese deputy minister indicated that entities not recognized by Japan were present in the room. This will have ” no impact on the status that the [country] grants them in its international relations,” he specified.
This is not the first time that tensions over Western Sahara have disrupted TICAD: in 2022 in Tunis, the Moroccan delegation left the conference to contest the presence of Sahrawi officials.
